Thieves caught on camera stealing seven cartons of rum

THREE offenders allegedly broke into the Cattle Camp Hotel at approximately 2am on Saturday.

Hotel owner Ian Tyack said the offenders bent up the back roller door of the drive-thru, slid underneath and allegedly stole seven cartons of rum cubes, a 10-pack of rum cans and two 10-packs of Wild Turkey cans.

"We've got camera footage right on them," Mr Tyack said.

"I got to the bottle shop at about 8 o'clock this morning and noticed all the cartons of rum missing off the shelf and I thought, 'that's funny,' and that's how I picked it up.

"The police cut them off in Morven and brought them back here, so that's a great job done by the police."

Mr Tyack said this was the second time he had been robbed within a month.

"On December 4 a few guys jimmied a door off the back of the hotel, came in through that, smashed the door on the ATM machine, jimmied the door off the office - but the safe was locked - and stole $200 petty cash from a draw.

"They stole a drill and a few other things, went into the pokie machine area and jimmied the door off two pokie machines and stole the cash out of those, totalling $340."

Mr Tyack said catching those perpetrators turned into quite the saga.

"They were wearing silver tracksuits, gloves and balaclavas, there was no distinguishing features so police couldn't charge anybody," he said.

"On the Saturday night (December 9, 2017) I went to the bottle shop to fill fridges, and I don't know how I didn't see them, but they've walked in off the street and stolen a carton of rum cans each and took off down the back of the hotel to the levee.

"An off-duty police woman happened to be driving past and witnessed it, would you believe? She notified the police, who managed to cut them off and I got one carton back," the hotel owner said.

"One of the guys has since admitted to breaking in here, but that off-duty police officer was fantastic."

Mr Tyack said Cattle Camp had been broken into about eight times since he bought the hotel in 1999.

"Two within a month, it adds up, it all costs me," he said.

"I've got 16 cameras in and around the hotel and 10 cameras in the pokie machine area.

"I'm now in the throes of putting in an alarm system that will go straight through to my home and into the manager's quarters," he said.

"As soon as one of the doors opens, sirens will go off."

A Queensland Police spokesperson said a 19-year-old Wilsonton man had been charged with entering a premises and committing an indictable offence in relation to last night's incident.

Investigations are continuing.

If you have any information call Policelink on 131444 or Crime Stoppers on 1800333000.